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Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Gary Corby: Optimism Through Confidence

For many years, new authors have struggled with innocence. Filled with hopes and dreams, the reality of the publishing industry can become too much to bear. In today's world with a thriving community of agents, editors, and and fellow authors on the internet, authors often struggle from the opposite extreme. They know the challenge of publishing; they know the odds their facing; and it can seem impossible. Gary Corby, well-received debut author with Minotaur, was kind enough to describe how he himself, as an internet-savvy and industry-wise author, was able to fend off pessimism:

I love your phrase, "the pursuit of publication has dark moments." I'd say when you query, it's one long dark moment, with only a tiny spot of light in the far-off distance, towards which you stumble, and unfortunately, the light's an oncoming locomotive.

I'm fairly sure every single published writer went through a depressed period, totally convinced that they and their book were doomed. This is only rational, because on the odds, they were doomed! It's a sometimes quoted statistic on the nets that agents receive 10,000 queries a year, from which they will sign perhaps 1 or 2 writers. If anything, I'd suggest that is slightly optimistic.

I was aware of these depressing numbers long before an agent showed any interest in me, but that didn't stop me querying, and it shouldn't stop you. You have to push through those numbers. But don't ignore them; instead, use them to make your book better. What I did was this: behind me as I write are shelves with a few thousand books. As I worked through my manuscript, from time to time I would pull down one of my favourite books and read a few pages. Was my own work at least as good as this published book? If the answer was no, I went back to work. Because you are not competing against those other 9,999 hopefuls. You are competing against yourself, to be as good as the books you love.

Gary Corby

Corby's first book is Pericles Commission, now available in the US and available in his native Australia on 4 January 2011. His second novel is slated for release in the US in October/November 2011.

Corby writes historical mysteries set in Ancient Greece, told with authenticity and a vibrant wit.

The numbers can be depressing. But I know from talking to my editor at Pan Mac that most submissions are, shall we say, well short of publishable. Make yours the best it can possibly, present it professionally, and you're already getting close to the top of the pile.

Awesome advice. The odds are overwhelming, but apparently some people do get published :) Even before Tim stated it, I thought about the number of queries an Agent must get a year from people who wrote out a first draft, considered it brilliant, and rushed to get it published (no, no personal experience there *cough*).

@Elena - Maybe it's cheesy in this circumstance, but one of my all-time quotes is from Stephen Lawhead's Byzantium: "Never doubt in the darkness what you once knew to be true in the light." It's so hard to keep track of that, but it sure seems like a simple truth.

@Clarissa - Yes! I think writers and other creative people are often fighting themselves. I often frame it in terms of our Fantasia side versus our Nothing side.

@Tim - That's great point, and my confident side finds reassurance in that, but the side of my that cannot abide arrogance chastises me for being that confident. lol Again with battling myself. :)

@Summer - I'm so glad it's encouraging to you. I decided to do this series after having several individual conversations with successful authors along these lines and then seeing so much discouragement amongst my fellow developing writers. It is hard. But it can be overcome. And we're not the only ones to face it!

@Donna - haha Exactly! I think it's incredibly easy to overlook the fact that people do get published every day. There's something twisted about our human nature that decides to cling to bitter stories of failure and reject optimism in order to protect ourselves from hurt. But the truth is, however hard is it, there is reason to be optimistic!

Thanks for the tip on your own interview with Gary. I'll be sure to read it! Didn't mean to scoop you, Donna! :)

Tim, yes, from talking to my agent and editor friends, I too have heard that many debut submissions have problems. But actually, I think that's probably irrelevant. The thing is, the space on the store shelves is more or less fixed. Even on Amazon -- perhaps especially on Amazon, which favours brand name authors -- so the only way for a debut to find room is to be as good as the stuff already there.

Michael, yes, exactly! I had no idea The Pericles Commission would be published when I started writing it. A certain amount of selling is fluke, especially in my case! But a lot of it is learning the craft, which is a skill almost anyone can acquire. With practise. Lots of practise. And studying the guys already on the shelves.

Clarissa, Elena, Misha...yes, if you give up, then that's an automatic fail. So just keep working at it.

By coincidence, Rachelle Gardner posted the other day that there had to be something to make you keep writing, despite the difficulty, because virtually everyone who gets there in the end had to be inhumanly persistent.

It doesn't get much easier, by the way. I know this must sound weird, but writing the second book, which I knew for sure was sold, was much, much harder than writing the first.

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Archaeologist, anthropologist, forensic anthropology tech, EMT -- and author of psychological suspense and short, character-driven literary fiction. Currently finishing up my novel, Sublimation, for query. I am very happily married to a creative and brilliantly quirky thinker named Rose. Oh, and most people just call me, "Nevets." Click around the tabs for more, and I hope you enjoy your visit!